Tokyo is now in summer mode with the weather being constantly over 30 degrees and the sun rises before around 4:30am. Work has been busy and as June is one of the few months in Japan without a public holiday, I am longing for mid July when we have a long weekend. I have been … Continue reading Aomori is calling us
Nestled in the lush mountains of Ishikawa Prefecture, Yamanaka Onsen is one of Japan’s most historical and scenic hot spring retreats. The onsen town has been quietly healing Japanese since the Nara period （710-704) but the extended shinkansen that open a year ago in 2024 is making it more accessible to visit 山中温泉 (Yamanaka Onsen). … Continue reading Yamanaka Onsen: A 1,300‑Year‑Old Mountain Hot Spring Town
Last weekend, we drove an hour from Tokyo to Chiba near Narita Airport for some Texan barbecue restaurant that we found on instagram called T's BBQ. When I sent the photo of the interior of this container restaurant to my friend living in Texas, he was surprised with all the Texan stickers! No wonder it's … Continue reading From Texas to traditional Japan in 10 minutes in Narita
The first half of Golden Week was spent in Istanbul, Turkey which had a connection to Japan mentioned in the previous blog post: https://nativeexpat.home.blog/2025/05/03/similarities-and-history-of-turkey-and-japan/ The second half of the Golden Week was spent in Sicily, Italy for a slower pace by the beach. The hilly cobblestone roads framed by low rise buildings allowed us a … Continue reading Sicily in Japan?
At the start of the week, cherry blossoms started to bloom with lots of buds still on the trees. Towards mid-week, there were cherry blossoms bit by bit around Tokyo: I thought cherry blossoms are blossoming earlier due to global warming but apparently cherry blossoms are blooming later than usual..or something not at all. I … Continue reading Japanese icons that may become a mere symbol
Last weekend was warm and sunny all around with plum blossoming, early cherry blossoms blooming. It was a perfect time to go for drive to visit a museum. You'd think that visiting a museum is a rainy day activity but I specifically wanted to visit Ichihara Lakeside Museum on a sunny day as it's located … Continue reading Art in Japan – Ichihara Lakeside Museum in Chiba
Last Tuesday, Feb 11 was National Foundation Day - 建国記念の日 (Kenkoku kinen no hi) and a public holiday in Japan so we ventured out to 志賀高原 (Shiga Kogen) for some skiing. More about the public holiday in my previous blog: https://nativeexpat.home.blog/2020/02/15/3-days-skiing-in-tsugaike-hakuba-japan/ About Shiga Kogen Shiga Kogen is located in Nagano prefecture and is Japan’s largest … Continue reading Skiing in one of Japan’s largest ski area: Shiga Kogen
Japan has been one of the hottest travel destinations and there is no signs or reasons to slow down. Between January to October 2024, over 30million international visited Japan. https://www.tourism.jp/en/tourism-database/stats/inbound/ With domestic and especially international guests filling up nearly every accommodations in major tourist ski resorts including Niseko in Hokkaido, Hakuba and Nozawa Onsen in … Continue reading Skiing in Nekoma Mountain, Fukushima
As the temperature plummets, being inside our home and being cozy becomes more and more tempting. One of the best Japanese way to enjoy your home is to light an incense. Just with what we have now, we have a range of incense and as you can see, we quite like incense. We love using … Continue reading How to make Japanese natural incense
One of the great things about living in Tokyo is that there are many suburbs, each with distinct flavor and in each area, there are so much to do. So in the series, Tokyo suburb highlight, I'd like to feature 神楽坂 (Kagurazaka). It feels so Japanese yet as it's called "Little Paris of Tokyo", there … Continue reading Tokyo suburb highlight: Kagurazaka
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